Each new year contains within its time-span unforeseen joys, challenges, and perhaps sorrows, but 2012—and specifically, 21st December 2012—is a date awaited with a particular sense of expectation and, for some, a bit of dread. The study of eschatology—that branch of theology that deals with the end of the world, the final judgment—helps us understand why time-specific prophecies often inspire a sense of dread or at least anxiety. However, as the writer Gerald Benedict pointed out in his book The Mayan Prophecies for 2012, the predictions surrounding 2012 do not fall under traditional eschatology, for they emanate from the Mayan understanding of time, which is cyclic rather than linear.

This casts the subject in a whole new light, one more compatible with the Ageless Wisdom’s interpretation of time. In fact, it might come as a surprise that a mastery of time is one of the psychic powers which must be developed by all disciples if they are to cooperate with the Hierarchy in meeting world need, but so it is. "A true comprehension of the time element, with its cyclic ebb and flow and the right seasons for action, is a most difficult psychic power to master, but one which can be mastered through the use of patient waiting and the elimination of hurry", the Tibetan Master wrote.

A cyclic ebb and flow governs all life in manifestation, with cycles of outgoing energy alternating with cycles of a more inward flow. The thrust of human activity over the past 250 years has manifested in an outwardly oriented cycle governed by an excessive focus on material development. That much of this focus has contributed to the general good can be seen in the scientific developments which have led to improved health and hygiene, the alleviating of much hard physical labour and the increased availability of leisure time, as well as exploration of both the Earth and of Earth’s neighbours.

What has been overlooked in the push to achieve greater material well-being is the knowledge of who and what man is, why he is here on Earth and what his role is in our planet’s evolution. But this awareness hasn’t been completely forgotten, for it is embodied in the network of servers known in the writings of Alice Bailey as the new group of world servers. They serve as wayshowers for the rest of humanity, and their contribution to our planetary evolution is celebrated through a "Festival Week" observed every seven years between 21st and 28th December. This special week will be observed again this year, and its opening date coincides with the date predicted in the Mayan calendar to mark the end of an old cycle and the beginning of a new—the 21st December. The significance of this is open to interpretation by all esotericists, but it surely gives reason to celebrate the existence of this great serving group.

The ebb and flow of energy cycles, which was innately understood by the ancient Mayans, is a directing power with which all disciples must learn to work. It governs not only the expenditure of physical-etheric force but also of mental energy, and operates according to laws quite different than those that seem to dominate the present times of "hyper-communication" and time increments measured in "nano-seconds". If there is any one gift that can be singled out in the treasures of the Ageless Wisdom, perhaps it is the vast view it offers of evolution and the cyclic flow of spiritual energy which it is humanity’s destiny to learn to wield in planetary service.

Let us prepare, throughout the coming year, for the celebration of this special septennial Festival Week.